Debates

Sixty years after the beginnings of the European idea, the EU is in trouble. Debt and currency crises have eroded confidence into the European project while member states remain hesitant to transfer power to Brussels. Yet historically, crisis has always resulted in further integration.

Populism is the current trending topic when one explains politics in Western countries. Though it is not a new concept, it is rising in Europe and it also managed to win hearts and minds of American people last year who chose Donald Trump to be the 45th president of the United States.

“The residents of the East German village Unterleuten didn’t read the papers, didn’t watch TV, didn’t use the World Wide Web. Politicians didn’t pay attention to Unterleuten – why would Unterleuten pay attention to politics? The village was missing stores, doctors, clergymen, the postal service, a pharmacy, as well as a school – it didn’t have sewerage either.” Juli Zeh hereby hits the bull’s eye.

Recently I read two seemingly contradictory ‘letters to the editor’ in a daily paper, I frequent regularly: “We always claimed that the boom of the East is really happening in the West,” a citizen from Wittstock in Brandenburg wrote. A reader from a city in North-Rhine-Westphalia, on the other hand, criticized my party DIELINKE for a “policy which focuses too strongly on the Eastern Germany.”

The German teacher Friedrich Froebel founded an educational establishment in the East-German Keilhau, Thuringia, about two hundred years ago. His credo at the time: “Children shall not be safeguarded or indoctrinated, but shall happily grow in the sunlight, gain strength and develop.” And 200 years later? Well, today we can hardly ignore the encompassing concern of society for our offspring.

Charitable giving is seen by some as an integral part of the human condition, a reflection of our empathy and compassion. Yet charity is practiced differently across cultures, religions, and worldviews. Why do we give, and what role does charity play in our varied societies?

Impact Investing, an investment “into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return” is being hyped right now. Go to any conference related to investing and it will be mentioned at some point. The landscape is growing with new funds emerging.

Zakat is a form of alms mandated by Islamic scripture. The coordination of this massive giving project has taken several forms throughout history. In today’s western world, Muslim charities play a central role.

True to the tradition of public intellectual engagement, the Philosophical Salon is a place where contemporary thinkers can discuss today’s crucial issues. In cooperation with our two columnists and editors of the Philosophical Salon, philosopher Michael Marder and literary and cultural theorist Patricia Vieira, The European brings you leading intellectuals from across the world and their reflections on things that matter to us all.

What is the history of salon culture? How did the salon contribute to the formation of a European public sphere? In what ways did salons create new forms of community through culture and ideas? What lessons can be learned for communication, discursive action and human interaction today? These are questions we must consider in envisioning new forms of participatory democracy in the 21 st century.

Great Britain and the EU are drifting apart. A majority of Britons now believes that EU membership has become a burden rather than a benefit. How much longer can the leadership at No.10 withstand the Eurosceptics?

Sitting in my favourite local café listening to Bob Dylans ‘It’s A Hard Rains Gonna Fall’ reminded me of the fundamental changes that have occurred since Great Britain had its first referendum on European membership. In the 70s there were no cafes serving ten different types of coffee to a clientele almost exclusively glued to laptop screens, running their businesses from flat white to cappuccino.

There have been fundamental changes that have occurred since Great Britain had its first referendum on European membership. In the 70s there were no cafes serving ten different types of coffee to a clientele almost exclusively glued to laptop screens, running their businesses from flat white to cappuccino.

Does the refugee crisis spell doom for Merkel and usher in the end of her chancellorship? Not necessarily. After a decade in the job she shows remarkably little signs of fatigue and there is no reason either to believe she is daunted by the intensity of opposition her controversial migration policy has been incurring. Nor does a growing amount of personal defamation seem to sap her determination.

In a recent interview the associate director of Portugal´s border agency, Luis Gouveia, said that besides bureaucracy the difficulty in the resettlement of refugees is due to the fact that they don´t want to come to Portugal but to the Northern European countries like Germany or Sweden.